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[DesignerDan]

My front left wheel bearing failed today with my girlfriend and I on the bike. We are okay. We had plenty of warning and had time to pull over before the whobbling got bad.

I will call Zero on Monday. I'm hoping they can just sent me the parts and I can be up and running again ASAP as the Zero is my only form of transportation as of right now.

Considering my bike has 24,500 miles on it, it's not that big of a deal that the bearing failed.

[camosoul]

I would not call it no big deal. My rebel is on original bearings with deep 6 digit odo, parked in the rain it's whole life. Ninja much the same. See who makes the bearings when you pull them. This should not have happened to such new bearings unless they were harshly abused.

[Richard230]

My daughter's 1986 Honda VFR, with 100K miles on the clock, still has its original wheel bearings, as does her 1981 BMW R65LS, with similar miles.  The bearings have never even been greased.  They are sill spinning on the original grease in the sealed bearings.  I would certainly expect similar performance out of any quality sealed wheel bearing.

[kensiko]

Yep we know Zero components may be on the cheap side

[mericle]

I had the front bearings on my 2012 go out at 24k miles as well. I went ahead and changed the back bearings since the two on the belt side looked ready to fail. The non-belt side of the rear wheel seemed fine. I would recommend changing the bearings at about 20k. Luckily, they only cost about $8 each (5 needed).

[benswing]

Interesting.  My rear bearings failed at 20,000 miles, but I thought that was because I had a heavy load in the back (junk in the trunk... er... chargers and luggage) and I also tightened the pre-load as far as it would go. 

Getting my tires changed soon, so I may ask them to look at the front bearings while they are at it.

[amahoser]

My 2008 Harley Nightster has a rear wheel bearing failure at 11,000 miles... went unnoticed (damn thing is so loud and vibrates). Didn't appear till the wheel seized up. Damage was so bad it cracked the hub. New hub, wheel lacing and bearings adds up $$ really quick.

just saying... its not just the Zeros

Jose Soriano

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

I suppose the good thing is that the bike is so damned quiet that the bearing is audible long before it seizes.

[kensiko]

I suppose the good thing is that the bike is so damned quiet that the bearing is audible long before it seizes.

So true! Every tiny noise can be heard, it can be annoying but it's going to be like that with electric motorcycles.

[DesignerDan]

Not only was I able to hear it audibly, but I also was able to feel the vibrations. The normal vibrations of an ICE bike would have masked it.

I just ended up ordering new bearings from a different manufacturer. I will probably end up changing the bearings in the rear wheel also just for piece of mind.

[Richard230]

Certain BMW models have had issues with their cheap (Bulgarian-made) wheel and steering head bearings during the past few years.  Everyone recommends taking your old bearings to a "bearing supply store" and have them supply you with a good quality bearing, which they can do just by looking at your old bearing.  After replacing the bearing with a brand name one, you will never have another problem with the replacement.  It may cost a little more than the stock bearing, but it will be well worth the expense.